Retail expert Mary Portas has accused the government of making "token gestures" to rejuvenate Britain's struggling high streets.
As a result of her review three years ago, 27 areas were given funding to build more diverse town centres - but the results have been mixed.
Ms Portas has now called for faster action on "crippling" business rates and for local councils to be given the power to take control of empty shops.

Commons Leader William Hague has said legislation affecting just England should only be passed "with the consent of the majority" of English MPs.
He announced four options for "English votes for English laws" in Parliament, including giving English MPs enhanced scrutiny and a veto over new laws.
He said new arrangements for England were a "fundamental issue of fairness".

Here are the numbers that explain why the Russian economy is imploding in the face of a tumbling oil price and Western sanctions.
Oil and gas energy represents two thirds of exports of around $530bn (£339bn). Without them, Russia would have a massive deficit on its trade and financial dealings with the rest of the world - which is why Russia's central bank expects a capital outflow of well over $100bn this year and next...

A partnership with eBay means that shoppers can log on in the shop via a giant interactive screen, to make a wish list of items.
Once in the changing room, the shopper can also communicate digitally with tablet-carrying sales associates, who then bring over requested clothes in different sizes and colours.
Once a decision has been made the guest can then pay for merchandise without ever standing in a queue or seeing a cash register.

The government's flagship planning policy has seen "inappropriate and unwanted" housing development spring up across England, MPs have said.
Rules allowing shops and offices to be converted without planning permission should be scrapped, the Communities and Local Government Committee urged.
It said the National Planning Policy Framework left High Streets unprotected against out-of-town store developments.

The Bank of England's doomsday economic scenario has left three of Britain's major banks under some stress.
But only one, Co-op, has actually failed the test of what would happen if there were an economic crisis in the UK.
The bank, which faced its own crisis in 2012 when its efforts to buy 600 Lloyds Bank branches collapsed, has been told to cut its balance sheet by selling assets.
For Lloyds and RBS the results of the stress tests were tough but not as gloomy.

The annual rise in UK house prices slowed in October, official figures show, but prices still went up much faster than the general cost of living.
UK property prices increased by 10.4% annually in October, down from 12.1% the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The average home in the UK was valued at £271,000, the ONS said.

The biggest-ever monthly drop in asking prices was reported by Rightmove this morning.
However, the portal measured 76,823 asking prices of properties put on sale by agents from November 9 to December 7 – almost every single one of which would have been priced before George Osborne’s SDLT reforms on December 3.
The average asking price was £258,424, down nearly £9,000 or 3.3% on the previous month’s figure of £267,127.

The consumer group HomeOwners’ Alliance has made an outspoken attack on the soon-to-launch property portal OnThe Market, set up by Agents’ Mutual.
"The creation of Agents Mutual is all about protecting estate agents’ market share and nothing about helping homeowners get a better deal” claims the group’s chief executive, Paula Higgins.

SPINNINGFIELDS block 4 Hardman Square has changed hands in a £31m deal.Orchard Street Investment Management has acquired the building on behalf of St James’s Place from a GLL Real Estate Partners fund.The 54,300 sq ft block is home to HSBC and Grant Thornton and has a Pret a Manger cafe...

A scheme offering first-time buyers under the age of 40 a discount of at least 20% on newbuild homes is set to go live in the new year, the government announced on Monday.
The Starter Home initiative will offer 100,000 properties at a discount, but the saving will be made possible by changes to the planning system and will come at the cost of affordable housing.

How much would a tenant have to pay to secure a £1,000-a-month flat through estate agents Foxtons? A total of £420, while the landlord would have to pay another £2,448 for Foxtons to find the tenant and manage the property for a year. It is these sorts of extraordinary fees, common across the fast-growing lettings industry, that are (finally) provoking a revolution in new online players, and that will see high street estate and letting agents go the same way as Blockbuster, HMV and Lunn Poly – business models blown apart by the internet.

A new housing development called Mill Junction has been built in Johannesburg, South Africa, using shipping containers and disused grain silos.
It is an attempt to address the shortage of cheap, university accommodation.

Neil Woodford, the ‘star’ fund manager who in August pumped £7m into the Purplebricks.com online agency, has turned out to be top of his class for returns.
An assessment of UK equity income funds over the past six months shows Woodford’s own fund, Woodford Equity Income, to be the most successful with backers gaining 7.4 per cent.

A report by the London School of Economics has put the annual value of the UK’s holiday rental industry at £4.35bn a year.
It also says that the industry has created over 95,000 jobs nationwide.
The report, produced in conjunction with a firm called HomeAway.Inc, says the self-catering holiday rental industry contributes £100m in tax and generates gross income for property owners of £950m.

THE newly renovated Bonding Warehouse in York has been put up for sale as an investment opportunity.
Bought by York-based developer Grantside in 2012, the landmark riverside grade II listed building, off Skeldergate, has been converted into a mixed-use scheme of 11,000 sq ft of office space and four luxury penthouse apartments on the upper two floors.

In what seems like an eternity ago now, way back in July 2014, the Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather brought forward her Private Member’s Tenancies (Reform) Bill.
The bill aimed at protecting tenants from retaliatory evictions was greatly anticipated and welcomed by the general public, MPs and the majority of letting agents. It also (rather unusually for a Private Member’s Bill) showed great promise of being granted Royal Assent to become law, due to the significant level of cross-party support it received.

Governments across the globe are grappling with the question of how to provide affordable housing for their ever-expanding populations. In the Netherlands many believe the solution lies not on land but on water.
Cruise by any of the canals in the Dutch capital and you'll catch a glimpse of people sipping cappuccinos on their floating verandas. Amsterdam, like many Dutch cities, is criss-crossed by an impressive network of canals.

A landmark ruling could have implications for letting agents and landlords in connection with the behaviour of tenants.
A noise abatement notice was issued by Poole Council in Dorset to letting agent Michele King on April 1 this year.
She appealed it but this week lost her case.
The authority acted after a string of complaints about a property which was managed by her business, Deluxe Holiday Homes.